Monday, November 4, 2013

As the final countdown to the World Chess Championship clash between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen begins, the chess fraternity is abuzz with speculation on who is working with whom as seconds.

But what do the ‘seconds’ do?

For decades now, creating a good team for preparation of an important match is considered as important as the match itself. World champion Anand learned this through immense experience he got while playing matches at different levels.

Anand first played a world championship candidates match in 1990s and has since then worked with many experts.

His seconds have included players like Swedish Grandmaster Ferdinand Hellers, who doesn’t play competitive chess anymore, and Uzbek Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who won the FIDE world championship in 2004.

Garry Kasparov of Russia had one of the best teams in 1980s and till much later as the Russian kept coming out with one opening idea after another stunning his opponents with awesome ease for over two decades.

In 1995, Kasparov defeated Anand in game 10, arguably the turning point of the match through a very famous piece of research work that led to a winning endgame with the Russian spending just three minutes on the clock.

Apparently, this had tremendous impact as Anand was no match in the second half of that match despite leading after game nine.

The role of the seconds is to bring out new ideas, work on them in detail till they are worthy enough to be usable.

It is clear that a lot of work and huge assistance from the computer engines is required for such a job and ironically 95 per cent of the work done remains unseen during the match.

It’s that deep research paper that doesn’t see the light of the day in its entirety and comes out only in patches, when the situation presents itself.

One of the great ideas that Anand produced against Wang Hao of China during the Tata Steel Chess tournament of 2012 was worked out during the champion’s preparation for the match against Russian Vladimir Kramnik at Bonn in 2008.

There have been countless such instances in case of all top players.

The men behind the scene have a lot to attend to not only during the preparation of the match but also when it’s on as they have to be battle-ready to attend to many new facts.

For example, if Carlsen plays something in game one that he has never played before or which the team did not expect him to play, they have to get down to business and start working on it and have a solution ready when the next game arrives.

The champions do not like to divulge information about the people they work as the guess work becomes easier.

If Anand is seen working with the expert of an opening system, it is likely that he wants to play that particular opening very soon.

For the match against Carlsen, Anand has retained the services of his two trusted men the bespectacled Bengal Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland while Sandipan Chanda is the new man in.

There is likely to be a fourth second about whom no information is available as yet. Kasimdzhanov had informed long back he won’t be assisting Anand this time.

Carlsen, on the other hand, has been totally mum on the issue. He was seen playing and sharing jokes with France’s Laurent Fressinet so it is assumed he is one of the team members while Jon Ludvig Hammer, his friend and compatriot will most likely be there.

Speculation is also rife about the presence of Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia who was seen working with Carlsen during some events in the past.

The Carlsen-camp has been expectedly quiet about the team as this might give the opposition camp an idea of what to expect. Much would be revealed when Carlsen lands in Chennai on Monday evening. -- PTI

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand will go into the World Chess Championship 2013 without two of his main team members: Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan and Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark.

Rustam Kasidzhanov was World Champion Viswanathan Anand's second for the successful World Chess Championships of October 2008 against Vladimir Kramnik, April-ay 2010 against Veselin Topalov and ay 2012 against Boris Gelfand.

Peter Heine Nielsen worked with World Champion Viswanathan Anand from 2002-2012 which covered the World Championships in Mexico 2007, Bonn 2008, Sofia 2010 and Moscow 2012. Nielsen coached World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in 2013 and Carlsen won the Candidates in London to earn the right to challenge Vishy Anand for his forthcoming title match in Chennai this November. Nielsen also coached Carlsen in Khanty-Mansiysk 2005 when Carlsen became the youngest-ever chess player to qualify for the Candidate matches. Nielsen also worked with Carlsen in 2007 for Wijk aan Zee.

Here are all the quotes about how the situation has come about with Anand preparing for the upcoming World Chess Championship 2013 with a new team.

Rustam Kasimdzhanov on the sidelines of the Zug Grand Prix-- During my work with Anand our relations were kind of intense. But after the match we came to a decision to have a sort of rest from each other. Maybe Anand needed rest from my company even more than me.

-- I think three World championship matches are enough for me. They were all very tough – one tougher than the other. At the end I think I deserved some rest (smiles).

World No. 1 Carlsen's manager Espen Agdestein to Norwegian journalists-- We cannot use Peter after he has worked so long with Anand. That would not be good, morally, even if there are no problems legally. Peter is therefore not going to work with us in preparation (for the World Chess Championship 2013 match) if Magnus qualifies as World Championship challenger.

-- Magnus plays best when he has lots of energy and desire to gamble. Therefore, we do not want to change his routines too much. At the same time Magnus will improve his openings for the Candidates, and here Peter will help him.

-- We are please to have Peter Heine on the team, he knows the Scandinavian mentality.

Peter Heine Nielsen quoted in Chessbase

-- Its been ten fantastic years with Team Vishy, culminating in four consecutive World Championship titles.

Aruna, Anand's wife and manager, quoted in Times of India

-- He is preparing for the match with his team outside Chennai. You will come to know about it only when the match starts. It's not that they left. Nielsen is working with a different person now and Kasim has moved on. They are still Anand's close friends and well-wishers. Chess theory moves faster. And January's ideas could become redundant in June. It's constantly evolving. Having said that, it's no secret that when you train together you share an intimate relationship. You get closer to the person and his mental make-up. (Photo: Team Anand, Moscow 2012: Peter Heine Nielsen, Aruna Anand, Viswanathan Anand, Rustam Kasimdzahnov, Radek Wojtaszek, Surya Ganguly, Eric van Reem and Hans-Walter Schmitt.)

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We've been celebrating the World Chess Championship 2013. The new World Chess Champion is Magnus Carslen, but we will continue to post links, views, features surrounding the World Chess Championship 2013 for the sheer joy of having witnessed chess history being created. Feel free to share opinion, links, and even point out errors - no matter which side you have been cheering for. Let's just continue celebrating a historic chess event. (Email: editor@blackandwhiteindia.com)